The Chauchat (pronounced 'show-shah') was a light machine gun used mainly by the French Army but also by seven other nations, including the USA, during and after World War I. Its formal designation in the French Army was Fusil-Mitrailleur Mle 1915 CSRG. It was also known as the CSRG or Gladiator. Over 260,000 were produced, making it the most widely manufactured automatic weapon of World War I. It was among the first light machine gun designs of the early 1900s. It set a precedent for 20th century firearm projects: a light automatic weapon built inexpensively in very large numbers. Like later military weapons that sacrificed quality for quantity (such as the World War II Sten), the firearm itself had noted performance issues. It also introduced altogether novel features, such as a pistol grip, an in-line stock and selective-fire which are now typical of modern assault rifles. Image File history File linksMetadata MWP_Chauchat. ... Polish Army (Polish Wojsko Polskie) is the name applied to the military forces of Poland. ... A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Not to be confused with Republika Srpska. ... Combatants Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Republic of Poland Ukrainian Peoples Republic Commanders Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Józef PiÅ‚sudski Edward Rydz-ÅšmigÅ‚y Strength 950,000 combatants 5,000,000 reserves 360,000 combatants 738,000 reserves Casualties Dead estimated at 100,000... Combatants Finland Soviet Union Commanders Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Kliment Voroshilov, later Semyon Timoshenko Strength 250,000 men 30 tanks 130 aircraft[1][2] 1,000,000 men 6,541 tanks [3] 3,800 aircraft[4][5] Casualties 26,662 dead 39,886 wounded 1,000 captured[6] 126,875... Combatants  Finland Germany Italy1  Soviet Union  United Kingdom2 Commanders C.G.E. Mannerheim Kirill Meretskov Leonid Govorov Strength 530,000 Finns[1] 220,000 Germans 900,000–1,500,000[2] Casualties 58,715 dead or missing 158,000 wounded 1,500 civilian dead[3] 200,000 dead or missing... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... .303 in. ... The 8mm Mauser cartridge next to a United States nickel. ... “Kg” redirects here. ... The pound or pound-mass (abbreviations: lb, lbm, or sometimes in the United States, #) is a unit of mass (sometimes called weight in everyday parlance) in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... A millimetre (American spelling: millimeter, symbol mm) is an SI unit of length that is equal to one thousandth of a metre. ... An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... A millimetre (American spelling: millimeter, symbol mm) is an SI unit of length that is equal to one thousandth of a metre. ... An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The 8x50R French (8mm Lebel) rifle cartridge was the first smokeless gunpowder cartridge to be made and adopted by a country, introduced by France in 1886. ... In firearms terminology, an action is the system of operation that the firearm employs to seal the breech (in a breech-loading firearm), and to load consecutive rounds. ... Recoil operation is a type of locked-breech firearm actions used in automatic firearms. ... The gas-actuated system for implementing automatic reloading of a firearm is one of three such systems, the others being recoil-actuated and blowback. ... (for paintball markers also)Rate of fire is the frequency at which a specific weapon can fire or launch its projectiles. ... A guns muzzle velocity is the speed at which the projectile leaves the muzzle of the gun. ... The M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, one of the most popular modern 5. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... This article is about the submachine gun. ... Firearms redirects here. ... On a firearm, a pistol grip is a portion of the gun which is held by the hand that orients the hand in a manner similar to the position one would take with a conventional pistol such as a Colt 1911. ... The SIG 550 has four modes : Security (S), One round (1), Three-round burst (3) and Full automatic (hidden under the metal security which is removed if needed) A selective fire firearm can be fired in both semi-automatic and any number of automatic modes by means of a selector. ... The AK is the worlds most common assault rifle. ...

Overview

The Chauchat machine gun functions on the long barrel recoil principle with a gas assist. The long barrel recoil principle had also been used by the Hungarian Rudolf Frommer for his "Frommer Stop" pistol (1910) and some experimental rifles (1905). The chronology of the patents makes it clear that Rudolf Frommer and Louis Chauchat had simply borrowed the mechanical principles of an already existing long barrel recoil, semi-automatic rifle filed by John Browning in his milestone U.S. Patent 659,786  of October 16, 1900. This precursor was the "Remington Model 8" semi-automatic rifle which was successfully marketed between 1906 and 1936. Recoil operation is a type of locked-breech firearm actions used in automatic firearms. ... John Moses Browning (January 21[1] or January 23,[2] 1855 – November 26, 1926), born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed myriad varieties of weapons, cartridges, and gun mechanics, many of which are still in use around the world. ... is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Äž: For the film, see: 1900 (film). ...

Browning's long barrel recoil principle was also applied in 1907 to autoloading shotguns: the classic "Browning Auto-5" and the "Remington Model 11". Following behind these commercial developments, Lt. Colonel Louis Chauchat and armorer Charles Sutter, at Atelier de Construction de Puteaux (APX) arsenal since 1903, proposed a machine gun based on the working principles applied in Browning's Remington Model 8 rifle. In 1908 it was dubbed Fusil-Mitrailleur C.S. ("C.S. Machine Rifle") and it used the 8 mm Lebel service cartridge. An improved version of the "CS" was also tested in 1913 with excellent results. After the war had started in August 1914, the realization sunk in that automatic weapons had become essential for success on the battlefields. General Joffre, the Commander in Chief, pressed to adopt a portable automatic weapon for the infantry. The only thoroughly tested light machine gun which also fired the 8 mm Lebel cartridge was the "CS" machine gun. It was quickly modified into the Fusil Mitrailleur Mle 1915 CSRG and adopted in July 1915. The "R" in CSRG stands for Ribeyrolles, manager of the Gladiator ("G") cycle factory, in the Paris suburb of Pre-Saint-Gervais. Manufacturing of the CSRG begun there in early 1916 and ended in December 1918. Another facility away from Paris (SIDARME) also manufactured CSRG's beginning in 1917. The Chauchat machine gun delivered to the French Army fired the 8 mm Lebel rifle cartridge at the slow rate of 250 rpm. The gun was much lighter (9 kilograms) than the contemporary portable light machine guns of the period, such as the Maxim Mle 1908-15 and the Lewis Gun. It was a select fire weapon, either automatic or semi-automatic mode. The gun's ergonomics, rather than its recoil, were difficult to cope with but could be tamed by well-trained gunners. In the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a lieutenant colonel is a commissioned officer superior to a major and subordinate to a colonel. ... Charles William Sutter (born November 1856, died August 23, 1922) was a politician in Alberta, Canada and a municipal councillor in Edmonton. ... The 8x50R French (8mm Lebel) rifle cartridge was the first smokeless gunpowder cartridge to be made and adopted by a country, introduced by France in 1886. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre (Army of the land), is the land-based component of the French Armed Forces and the largest. ... The French Lebel Model 1886 rifle, or officially Fusil dInfantrie Modele 1886 was the first rifle designed to use smokeless gunpowder. ... The 8x50R French (8mm Lebel) rifle cartridge was the first smokeless gunpowder cartridge to be made and adopted by a country, introduced by France in 1886. ... MG08 with optical sight. ... The Lewis Gun is a pre-World War I era squad automatic weapon/machine gun of American design that was most widely used by the forces of the British Empire. ...

The Chauchat's construction was composite thus not fully consistent in terms of parts quality. The recoiling barrel sleeve as well as all the bolt moving parts were precision milled from solid steel and always fully interchangeable. The barrels were standard Lebel barrels that had been shortened from the muzzle end . The barrel radiators were made of ribbed cast aluminum. On the other hand, the outer breech housing is just a tube that betrays Gladiator's pre-war activities in motorcycle manufacturing. The rest of the gun was built of stamped metal plates of mediocre quality. Side plate assemblies were held by screws that could become loose after prolonged firing. The sights were often misaligned on the Gladiator-made guns, creating aiming problems that had to be corrected by the gunners. In general, this use of stamped metal to build weapons quickly and at low cost presaged the manufacturing methods used in World War II, which led to the mass-production of automatic weapons such as the British Sten submachine gun. The exact number on record of Chauchat machine gun manufactured between 1916 and the end of 1918 is 262,300. The Gladiator factory manufactured 225,700 CSRGs in 8 mm Lebel plus 18,000 in the US caliber .30-06 between April 1916 and November 1918. SIDARME manufactured 18,600 CSRGs, exclusively in 8 mm Lebel, between October 1917 and November 1918. The SIDARME manufactured Chauchats were generally better finished than those made by Gladiator. The French Army had a stock of 63,000 CSRG's just before the Armistice. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article is about the submachine gun. ...

The French military at the time considered the Chauchat's performance as inferior in comparison to the reliable heavy Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun. However it was a light weapon that could be mass-produced quickly, cheaply and in very large numbers. It was also never intended to take the role of static defense of the heavy machine gun but to be a portable weapon that would increase the firepower of infantry squads on the offense. A significant plus is that it used the 8 mm Lebel service ammunition. The other light squad automatic weapons available at the time included the Hotchkiss M1909 Benet-Mercie machine gun, the Madsen machine gun or the Lewis Gun, but none of these, except the Hotchkiss M1909, could be successfully converted to accept 8 mm Lebel ammunition. The Mle 1914 Hotchkiss machine gun became the standard machine gun of the French Army during World War I. It was manufactured by the French arms company of Hotchkiss et Cie, which had been established in the 1860s by American industrialist Benjamin B. Hotchkiss. ... Soldiers with a M1909 The Benet-Mercie Machine Rifle, Caliber . ... The Madsen machine gun was a light machine gun developed by a Captain Madsen of the Danish artillery in 1903. ... The Lewis Gun is a pre-World War I era squad automatic weapon/machine gun of American design that was most widely used by the forces of the British Empire. ...

Battlefield Performance

The Chauchat's performance on the battlefields drew mixed reviews from the users when the war was stagnating in the trenches in 1916 and 1917. Later on, in the spring of 1918, the war moved into open fields while French infantry had been reorganized in small combat teams using the Chauchat and the VB rifle grenade for mutual support. At this point in time, in 1918, the regimental records and statistics of medals given to Chauchat gunners prove that they had contributed in no small part to the success of the new infantry tactics. A rifle grenade is a form of grenade that utilizes a rifle as a launch mechanism to increase the effective range of the grenade. ...

The technical complaints found in the surveys organized by General Petain in late 1917 were: 1) the magazines were too flimsy and, being open on one side, were easy to clog with dirt, (not an ideal situation in trench warfare). The surveys showed that two thirds of stoppages were caused by bad magazines. Due to poor design, the magazines tended to feed the first few rounds nose-up, but the last few rounds nose-down, causing stoppages. 2) the gun could not fire more than about 300 rounds (15 magazines) continuously without seizing momentarily due to overheating. The gunner had to wait until the gun cooled off before resuming firing. The latter problem is never mentioned in modern gun literature but it was the Chauchat's most aggravating limitation in combat.^{[citation needed]} As a result, the recommendation given in application schools for the infantryman was to fire for effect only in short bursts (3 rounds), or on semi-automatic. The weapon was to be fired in long bursts very rarely, and only in case of emergency. Because of dispersion, it was also recommended to engage targets at relatively short distances, never exceeding 200 yards. Walking fire on full-automatic was actually easier to execute than fixed fire but lacked effectiveness except at almost point blank range.^{[citation needed]} Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain, was a French general, later Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de lÉtat Français), from 1940 to 1944. ... (UTC) Walking your fire is a technique used by operators of certain types of weapons to engage a target without the use of a targeting device. ...

Comparison

The Chauchat was not comparable to the submachine guns of World War I, which were less powerful because they used pistol rather than rifle ammunition. The Italian Villar-Perosa and Beretta Model 1918, the first two submachine guns to appear in World War I fired the 9 mm Glisenti (a weak 9 mm round). The MP18 Bergmann, a German Army submachine gun fielded during the spring of 1918, fired the 9 mm Luger cartridge. Compared to the Chauchat, these early submachine guns were used in relatively small numbers (thousands rather than hundreds of thousands), and had much shorter effective ranges. The MP5 is a third-generation submachine gun that is widely used by law enforcement tactical teams and military forces. ... The Villar-Perosa aircraft submachine gun was an Italian double barreled machine gun designed by Bethel Abiel Revelli, a Major in the Italian Army in 1914. ... The Beretta Model 1918 was a submachine gun that entered service in 1918 with the Italian armed forces. ... .303 in. ... The MP18 was one of the first submachine guns. ... The German Army (German: [1], [IPA: heɐ]  ) is the land component of the Bundeswehr (Federal Defence Forces) of the Federal Republic of Germany. ...

Unlike much heavier air-cooled and water-cooled machine guns (such as the Hotchkiss machine gun and the various belt-fed Maxim gun derivatives), the Chauchat was not designed for sustained defensive fire. The tactical edge expected from the Chauchat was to increase the infantry's offensive firepower during the assault. The Chauchat in spite of its obvious limitations, such as the Lebel ammunition and reliability problems, was an early forerunner of the assault rifle concept. The Hotchkiss machine gun was the standard machine gun of the French Army during World War I. It was made by the French arms company Hotchkiss et Cie, which was set up by American engineer Benjamin B. Hotchkiss after he moved to France in the 1860s. ... An early Maxim gun in operation with the Royal Navy 1895 . ... The AK-47 is the worlds most common assault rifle. ...

American Chauchats

After the USA had entered World War I, in April 1917, the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) arrived in France without automatic weapons or field artillery. It turned to the French ally rather than to the British to purchase ordnance. General Pershing chose the Hotchkiss machine gun and the Chauchat machine gun (dubbed "automatic rifle" by the AEF) to equip the U.S. infantry. Between August 1917 and the November 11, 1918 Armistice, Gladiator delivered to the A.E.F. 39,000 Chauchat "automatic rifles" in 8 mm Lebel and, late in 1918, 18,000 Chauchats in .30-06. The performance of the M1918 Chauchat in .30-06 was soon recognized as unsatisfactory: the common problem was a failure to extract after the gun had fired only a few rounds and became slightly hot. Based on archival records and recent trials, including a firing test performed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in July 1973, the adaptation of the Chauchat to use .30-06 ammunition had been compromised by incorrect chamber measurements and sub-standard manufacturing. Only small numbers of the .30-06 Chauchat ever reached the front lines and they were immediately discarded by the troops as useless. As a result, the Chauchats in 8 mm Lebel continued to be used by the A.E.F. until supplies of the newly manufactured and vastly superior Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) were allocated sparingly and late, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive (September 1918). About 75% of the U.S. Divisions were still equipped with the Chauchat - in its original French M1915 version - at the Armistice of November 11, 1918. It is also well documented that General Pershing had been holding back on the BAR until victory was certain, for fear it would be copied by Germany ( Ayres,1919 ). As to the U.S. Marines, they had initially received .30-06 chambered Lewis Guns, but had to exchange them for Chauchats after their arrival in France. (This was the result of an old feud between Mr Lewis and the superior officer in charge of the U.S. Ordnance Department ) . As a matter of interest and as documented by WW-1 veteran Laurence Stallings ( in "The Doughboys", 1963) and by U.S. Divisional Histories, Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to three American Chauchat gunners in 1918: 1) Private Niels Wold (35th Division, 138th Infantry). 2) Private Frank Bart (2nd Division,9th Infantry) and 3) Private Thomas C. Neibauer (42nd Division, 107th Infantry).^[1] “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Officers of the American Expeditionary Forces and the Baker mission The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF was the United States military force sent to Europe in World War I.(In France, AEF is a news agency specialised in Education and Formation) The AEF fought alongside allied forces against imperial German... is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... A white flag is traditionally used to represent a truce. ... Aberdeen Proving Ground is a United States Army proving ground located in Harford County, Maryland. ... The Browning Automatic Rifle (commonly known as the BAR; properly pronounced bee ay are) is a family of automatic rifles (or machine rifles) and light machine guns used by the United States and other countries during the 20th century. ... Combatants United States German Empire Commanders John J. Pershing Georg von der Marwitz Strength American Expeditionary Force German Fifth Army Casualties 26,277 killed 95,786 wounded 122,066 total 28,000 killed 92,250 wounded 120,250 total The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was the final offensive of World War... is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the United States military responsible for providing power projection from the sea,[1] utilizing the mobility of the U.S. Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. ... The Lewis Gun is a pre-World War I era squad automatic weapon/machine gun of American design that was most widely used by the forces of the British Empire. ... Branch insignia of Ordnance Corps The Ordnance Corps is a combat service support branch of the United States Army. ... The 42d Infantry Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War I and World War II, and is the division of the New York National Guard. ...

Use by Other Countries

Other countries, beside the USA, used the Chauchat in fairly large numbers during World War I. They are:

• Belgium: 6,900
• Romania: 7,200
• Russia: 5,700
• Serbia: 3,800
• Greece: 3,900
• Polish Blue Army: over 5,000

A number of captured Chauchats were used by German frontline infantrymen because they had no light machine guns of their own until the portable Maxim MG08-15's were issued to them during early 1917. [1] Most of the Belgian Chauchats were converted to fire their 7.65 mm Mauser ammunition. Poland received French military assistance after World War I and received over 2,000 Chauchats as part of a weapon transfer and used them during the Polish-Soviet war. After the war Poland bought more of them and their number reached 11,869, becoming a standard Polish light machine gun in the 1920s. According to some publications, a small number were modified in the 1920s to use German 7.92mm Mauser ammunition, but there is no clear confirmation. In 1936-1937, 8,650 were sold abroad, probably to Republican Spain^[2]. During the Winter War between Soviet Union and Finland, over 5,000 Chauchats were donated to Finland which lacked automatic weapons. Some remnants of the Chauchat design are reported to have appeared in the 1960s during the Vietnam War. General Józef Haller in front of the troops This article is about the army in Polish history. ... MG08 with optical sight. ... Combatants Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Republic of Poland Ukrainian Peoples Republic Commanders Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Józef Piłsudski Edward Rydz-Śmigły Strength 950,000 combatants 5,000,000 reserves 360,000 combatants 738,000 reserves Casualties Dead estimated at 100,000... Combatants Finland Soviet Union Commanders Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Kliment Voroshilov, later Semyon Timoshenko Strength 250,000 men 30 tanks 130 aircraft[1][2] 1,000,000 men 6,541 tanks [3] 3,800 aircraft[4][5] Casualties 26,662 dead 39,886 wounded 1,000 captured[6] 126,875... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000...

Replacing the Chauchat: the "Fusil-Mitrailleur (FM) Mle 1924-29"

The French military decided during the post-war years to urgently upgrade with a more reliable light squad automatic weapon. The new light portable machine gun was developed at the "Manufacture d'Armes de Chatellerault" during the early 1920s, culminating in the adoption of the F.M. Mle 1924. The new light machine gun (in French :fusil-mitrailleur) had been designed by Lt. Colonel Reibel and Controller Chosse and was gas operated, like the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) which had inspired the new gun's internal features. The venerable 8 mm Lebel round, which was one of the major handicaps of the Chauchat, had been discarded for a 7.5 mm rimless cartridge resembling a necked down 7.92 mm German Mauser round. The F.M. Mle 1924 featured a bipod, an in-line stock, a pistol grip, a top-mounted 25 round magazine and a bolt hold-open after the magazine's last round had been fired. Protection of all the openings against mud and dust was excellent. The cyclic rate was 450 rounds per minute. It was modified in 1929 to accept a slightly shorter 7.5 mm cartridge that could not be mistaken for a German Mauser round or a Swiss 7.5 mm round. The new weapon and modern rimless ammunition had finally corrected all the problems associated with the Chauchat. The reliable and well-liked FM (Fusil-Mitrailleur) Mle 1924-29 was manufactured in large numbers (187,000) and widely used by the French Army until the late 1950s. A squad automatic weapon (SAW) is a light or general-purpose machine gun, usually equipped with a bipod and firing a 7. ... The fusil-mitrailleur mle 1924 (automatic rifle, model of 1924) was a light machine gun in use by the French army from 1924. ...

References

1. ^ Medal of Honor Recipients World War I army.mil
2. ^ Andrzej Konstankiewicz, Broń strzelecka i sprzęt artyleryjski formacji polskich i Wojska Polskiego w latach 1914-1939, Lublin 2003, ISBN 83-227-1944-2

• Demaison, G. and Buffetaut, Y. (1995). The Chauchat Machine Rifle. Collector Grade Publications Inc.. ISBN 0-88935-190-2. 
• (1917) Handbook of the Chauchat Machine Rifle, Model of 1915. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.. 
• Bruce, Robert (1997). Machine Guns of World War 1: Live firing classic military weapons. Windrow and Greene. ISBN 1-85915-078-0. 
• Canfield, Bruce N. (2000). U.S. Infantry Weapons of the First World War. Andrew Mowbray Publishers. ISBN 0-917218-90-6. 
• Stallings, Laurence (1963). The Doughboys - Story of the AEF, 1917-1918. Harper and Row, New-York. 
• Major General William Crozier (1920). Ordnance and the World War. Charles Sribner and Sons, New York. 
• Leonard P Ayres (1919),The War with Germany-A Statistical Summary, US Government Printing Office,Washington DC.

Robert I, King of Scots, usually known as Robert the Bruce (July 11, 1274 – June 7, 1329, reigned 1306 – 1329), was, according to a modern biographer (Geoffrey Barrow), a great hero who lived in a minor country. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

See also

• Hotchkiss M1909 light machine gun
• List of individual weapons of the U.S. Armed Forces
• Infantry Weapons Of WWI

Soldiers with a M1909 The Benet-Mercie Machine Rifle, Caliber . ... Individual weapons by type and current level of use. ... World War I started on 28th of July 1914 when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. ...

External links

• (French)Detailed description page